The Perfect Child
2019 • 370 pages
Ratings37
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings37
Average rating3.9
A page-turning debut of suspense about a young couple desperate to have a child of their own--and the unsettling consequences of getting what they always wanted. Christopher and Hannah are a happily married surgeon and nurse with picture-perfect lives. All that's missing is a child. When Janie, an abandoned six-year-old, turns up at their hospital, Christopher forms an instant connection with her, and he convinces Hannah they should take her home as their own. But Janie is no ordinary child, and her damaged psyche proves to be more than her new parents were expecting. Janie is fiercely devoted to Christopher, but she acts out in increasingly disturbing ways, directing all her rage at Hannah. Unable to bond with Janie, Hannah is drowning under the pressure, and Christopher refuses to see Janie's true nature. Hannah knows that Janie is manipulating Christopher and isolating him from her, despite Hannah's attempts to bring them all together. But as Janie's behavior threatens to tear Christopher and Hannah apart, the truth behind Janie's past may be enough to push them all over the edge.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book kept me hooked, and despite the buildup throughout the story, I was absolutely not prepared for the ending.
The author does a damn good job building her characters, I found myself siding with Hannah a lot and sharing her frustrations at her husband, and her fears for her family.
To me, this is one of the best books I've ever read, and would recommend picking it up!
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This story was WILD. Talk about keeping me on my toes. I was invested from beginning to end. I thought the writing and story telling was excellent. I felt like it was a slow progression into madness but it was perfect. It didn't go from one extreme to the next, you were right there with all the small changes. Great at keeping me interested as I didn't know if it was an unreliable narrator or if the child was just that scary. Fantastic read especially for my first Lucinda Berry book. Got me out of a reading slump
read for summerween 2022
this was really good and more graphic than most evil child books but it wasn't completely unique to the trope
There has never been a worse ending to a book. Literally... never. No ending would have been better. There was so much build up and none of the questions were answered.
What was all the demon stuff? It was talked briefly by 2 people and then never addressed again. Was Hannah really going crazy from PPD or was it something else? What was going to happen with Allison's death? Ugh, a huge let down.
